The Official Website of The International Guild of Town Pipers. Patron: Professor Richard Rastall

Since the publication of York Music in 1988 substantial new
information on the York city waites has come to light, in no small
part thanks to the late Thomas Parsons Cooper, 1863-1937,
affectionately known in his time (and today by those who have
discovered him) as "TPC". In a photograph taken in 1905 TPC can be
seen aged 42 among the Old York Views and Worthies
committee who, influenced by the enthusiasm of Dr William
Evelyn, and later John Bowes Morrell, Oliver Sheldon and others,
helped prevent the destruction of the medieval city walls and bars
(gateways) and other familiar landmarks. He published small
booklets on the city walls, clockmakers, inns, publishers &
booksellers and of course York musicians. His many manuscripts of
unpublished material are of great assistance to the modern
researcher.

When I was researching York Music TPC's little book
The Christmas Waites and Minstrels of Bygone York proved
useful but not particularly inspiring. From somewhere I got its
date as 1909, which may be the case although I am unable to verify
at present. In May 1992, whilst still trying to "kill off" Dan
Hardman, I requested a number of documents in York reference
library which should have included this pamphlet, but it wasn't in
the heap brought to me from the store. However, I had been
accidentally provided with a typescript I had not seen before:
The Waits and Minstrels of the City of York from the earliest
times to the year 1835. It turned out to be remarkably like my
own book York Music, written by TPC around 1934. It
surprised and pleased me by ante-mimicking York Music, and
tucked inside the front cover reposed a collection of letters,
rather akin to my own correspondence with Anthony Rooley requesting
a prestigious foreword. TPC was attempting to have this fuller
version of his earlier pamphlet published and was writing to - I
could not believe my eyes - my own dedicatee the, then very un-late
Percy Scholes who had written to TPC congratulating him on
Chistmas Waits and Minstrels which he had obtained from
Cooper in Feb. 1934. The next letter, 22 April 1937 is again from
Scholes, modestly agreeing to write the foreword for the new book
and pointing out a very few errors, mainly relating to his own
current passion with the universal misunderstanding of the
Puritans' attitude to music (it is still thought that Cromwell's
regime actively discouraged music and dance despite Scholes's
authoritative refutation in The Puritans and Music). The
work never reached his projected publisher, for TPC died later that
year and the typescript has lain, just another TPC item, in the
city library to this day. In the preface to York Music 1
had said: "I would most have liked to offer my story about the
waites to Percy Scholes". It would seem that TPC had already done
the job for me.

Thanks to TPC's typescript, some further research and
correspondence since York Music was published, I now have
additional material to add to, or clarify the story. It is offered
here in chronological sequence.

PIPERS, MINSTRELS AND WAITES (YM p. 54;
Appendix I)

Correspondence with Prof. Keith Polk of the University of New
Hampshire has provided prodigious quantities of information on
civic ensembles in Flanders, Germany and Italy, enabling comparison
with what is known about British waites. There is material here for
a separate discussion but I wish at this point to consider the four
14th century York freemen listed as pipers: Willelmus de
Lyncoln, 1340; Rogerus Wayte, 1363; Willelmus de Cayton, 1373 and
Johannes de Styllington, 1391. There was always a temptation to
sweep to the conclusion that they were waites before the first
mention of waytes in 1434, but this was avoided except in the case
of Rogerus Wayte where I tentatively suggested that profession and
name may have indicated such. Prof. Polk discovered the terms
pfeifer/pijper/piffero in continental civic records
concluding that, dependent upon context, piper could mean
specifically either shawm player or city minstrel, i.e. waite. Of
course the contemporary terms stadtpfeifer and
stadspijper are yet more specific as town piper,
which is occasionally encountered in English records. Our 14th
century pipers in the York roll of freemen may well have
been waites, but certainty still eludes us. Among musicians not
known until the TPC typescipt turned up is Thomas de Melton,
wayte of 1391. The source is not given and he is not in
the freemens' roll, but TPC is reliable and there is no need to
suspect this entry. 1391 is the same year as the freedom of
Johannes de Styllington, piper and it is difficult to resist the
temptation to list them both as early waites. Perhaps further
information from other English cities will finally confirm this
tantalising thesis e.g. Doncaster, 1457:

Allan Pyper and William Pyper are elected Pipers or Wayts.

Another York writer who concentrated part of his effort on
musicians was John Ward Knowles, 1838-1931. He was a well-known
glass painter and, as a young man, one of York's pioneer
photographers. York city library houses many of his manuscripts and
collections of press cuttings which include a large amount of
material on York musicians. TP Cooper must have known this
prominent York personality and, perhaps inspired by inaccuracies,
hasty conclusions and Knowles's appalling handwriting, was
stimulated into carrying out his own researches into York
musicians. Knowles's work should not be underestimated, for it
provides a picture of many musicians still remembered or alive in
his time, and it is worthwhile sorting the historical reality from
his manuscripts. Thanks to that handwriting I do find I need to
write out a "translation" before I can begin reading in earnest!
However, it was Knowles who provided the basis for my appendix I,
the list of York musicians which 1 have now checked with various
alternative and original sources in order to correct mis-spellings
and weed out errors, e.g. Nicholas de Blackburne, 1394 has to go
for he was never known to have been a minstrel, but was a mercer
and Lord Mayor of some renown.

I am indebted to Dr Eileen White for pointing out inaccuracies
due to my (and others') misunderstanding of the records relating to
the Midsomer Even shows of the 1580s. To put it right here is a
reworking of the story:

Midsummer eve was a day of great importance to the citizens of
York in the last decades of 16th century. The public highlight of
medieval York's calendar had been the annual performance of the
plays of Corpus Christi (see Early Theatre vol. 3, 2000),
each trade guild having its own play to perform at given stations
in Micklegate and around the city centre. This play cycle, now
known as the York Mystery Plays, did not have the approval of the
16th century Protestant church and performances eventually ceased
by 1580. The citizens had a need to participate in some great
ceremony of their own and The Midsomereven Show, developed from
1581, was a popular substitute.

John Balderston, one of the waites soon to be dismissed for
misdemeanours ....towching their evill and disorderlie
behaviour.... took his fife and, accompanied by Edmund Archer,
city drummer, went about the city for two and a half days before
the event to warn the citizens of the impending pageantry.
The day would begin at dawn with a mustering of York's available
defences. All able-bodied men with the armour and arms kept by
their parish - newly refurbished - gathered under the command of
the parish constables, directed by the Sheriffs. This must have
been a noisy event for, not only were the city defences inspected,
but they were, it seems, also tested. The Sheriffs were allowed 30
lb (~15 Kg) of gunpowder, presumably to ensure that the rarely-used
matchlocks and callevers had been correctly maintained. 30 lb of
powder would make plenty of big bangs! It seems that Balderston and
Archer, with fife and drum, would have been present for this event,
but thefour waites with their shawms were perhaps to appear later
as a play, the highlight of the day's entertainment, was wheeled on
an old pageant wagon through the streets to be performed eight
times at different stations.

As the wagon moved from place to place it was accompanied by a
colourful procession led by fforerydinge Champions,
perhaps characters from the play. They were followed by the mounted
Sheriffs and the great white silken standard of York. Around the
standard two handsword players twirled and flourished two-handed
swords. We know that they flanked the standard because it cost one
shilling to mend the flag, vnadvisedly rented by one of
the enthusiastic swordsmen. Two drummers were present, one with
the drum (the large city drum), probably Archer again, and
the other with the litle drum, both refurbished for the
occasion.

With them was the city trumpeter, and somewhere in the
procession would have been the four waites playing the city's
noys of shalmes. Their leader was the venerable Robert
Hewet, first employed to knock the band into shape after their
dismissal for their misdemeanour in 1556. Second in
seniority was John Balderston, earlier that day player of the fife.
John Clerke was a character, temporarily sacked, along with
Balderston in October that year: .... for that they have gone
abroad in the contry in very evill apparell, with their hose forth
at their heeles, also that they are comon drunkerdes and cannot so
connynglie play on their instrumentes as they ought to do....
Both were soon forgiven and reinstated but Clerke was again sacked,
or rather "retired" in 1596, now an old man with 25 years as a
waite behind him. His exasperated colleagues asked for his removal
because he was old, deaf, and a dreadful drunkard; a hopeless
liability. George Cowper was a fishy sort of chap, a southerner
from Ipswich, hired in May 1584 and sacked in the following October
for his part in a fraud concerning cloth and an elderly couple.

The waites would have played shawms, perhaps the three by a
previous waite, John Harper, plus a bass shawm 1561 (probably what
we would call today a tenor). Their cognizances, their badges of
office, three made before 1667, were, it seems, in a sorry state,
for early the following year they were delivered to Thomas Turner,
goldsmith to be newly flourished and trimmed. The three surviving
originals are solid silver, but they were almost certainly gilt in
the 16th century, and the gold plate would have required
replacement from time to time. As My Lord Mayor, the corporation
and guests watched the play from one Thomas Colthirst’s house
they entertained themselves well (at the city's expense!) with
several hundred apples, ten pounds of sugar, five pounds of
marmalaid, plenty of fyne suckett, carrawais, & biskyttes,
maynebread & cakes, washed down with fourteen gallons of ale,
seven and a half gallons of wine and claret, and a gallon of
sack!

JOHN GIRDLER, 1597-1666 (YM p. 99)

TPC adds a single, useful addition to the Girdler story, though
he gives no source to allow confirmation or follow up. He states of
John Girdler's death: "He died in his 69th year on November 20th
1666, and his burial two days later in the adjoining churchyard (St
Crux) is recorded thus: John Geirdler, chefe master of the
Cittye Waites". From this we may deduce that he was born in
1597 or 1598 and that when he began his career as a York Waite in
1623 he was about 25 years old. There is no evidence that he was a
York man and it seems likely that he apprenticed elsewhere,
transferring to this city as an experienced musician.

WILLIAM TIREMAN, c. 1680-c.1761 and 1719-c.1777
(YM p. 108)

The next musician for consideration here is William Tireman who
presented the frustrating problem expressed in the book on page
109. It was quite evident that he was in fact two men of the same
name but who they were was unclear until aid arrived from a
descendent who had read York Music. Some suggestions from
Mr L N Kidd's family history research led us to believe that here
we had a father and son called Williarn Tireman, and John Malden's
microfiches Register of York Freemen 1680 to 1986
(Sessions of York, 1989) was consulted. A fair pedigree of the
Tireman family was devised (not to be confused with Tyreman, not a
spelling idiosyncrasy, but another York family). From this it was
evident that there was a series:

Reference to the few 18th century electoral registers given in
John Malden's work clarified the issue most satisfactorily:

Poll for Member in Parliament or the City of York begun the
13th May, 1741.
Tireman, Henry, barber, Coney StreetTIREMAN, WILLIAM, CITY-WAITE, DAVYGATE
TIREMAN, WILLIAM, ORGANIST, DONCASTER and again in
1758
Tireman Tho., Flaxdresser, Fossgate (brother of Wm Tireman,
organist)WILLIAM TIREMAN, CITY WAITE, CONEY STREET

The York city chamberlains' accounts have regular entries
recording that Mr Tireman received wages on behalf of the waites
1720-41 and 1746-61. It is now quite evident that William Tireman
III, the city waite, was the recipient. The electoral roll for 1758
proves him to have been still alive that year, by then aged about
78 and he evidently worked on until he died or retired in 1761.
During the three years 1742-5 perhaps he was sick or left York for
a while (visiting his son in Cambridge?) during which Mr Bulckley
was the waites' accountant. It may be noted that his address
changed between the polls of 1741 and 1758. It looks as if his
career, 1703-61 lasted a prodigious 58 years! Thus the William
Tireman story is clarified almost as far as is possible. One can
now check the index of wills from 1761 onwards in the hope of
finding out more about the city waite (failed 18:7.89). Hearth tax
records might also tell us more. Cambridge records may tell more
about his son, the organist (so far no additional material).

So, the prosperous looking William Tireman depicted on page 108
is truly the prosperous organist, not the waite, who was his
father.

The search for the miniature portrait on a snuff box of John
Camidge senior in his scarlet livery coat has been unsuccessful to
date and no more of his secular music has been identified. I would
like to point out that the assertion that Camidge took lessons with
Handel appear to be universally unreferenced and, though it could
well be true, it may come from a single source and become a
much-quoted item of York folk lore. Two sources of his 'Duke of
York's March' have turned up. Sir W E Parry (1790-1855) the
Arctic explorer who discovered the North-west Passage route around
the top of Canada, took on board his ship a barrel organ (built
between 1801 and 1816) to provide entertainment for his men. Among
the forty tunes it could play were hymns, the national anthem,
popular dances and the Duke of York's March. The restored
organ has been recorded by The York Waits' own recording company
Saydisc [CSDL 2341]. To hear this on an organ barrel is to hear a
near contemporary “recording”.

As well as TP Cooper’s arrangement (YM p. 41) a
manuscript version of the tune occurs in a manuscript collection of
a young Helperby musician by the name of Lawrence Leadley,
1828-1897 (Merryweather J. 1994 The Fiddler of Helperby.
Dragonfly Music. ISBN 1-872277-18-7). It dates from before 1840 and
is labelled with a “B” which may mean it is to be
played on the keyed bugle (much further research is required to
confirm this assertion). The Leadley collection contains hundreds
of tunes and, if only one knew some titles, it may well contain
other Camidge compositions. Patient research will, I am sure,
provide further interest. In a recent conversation with another
York music historian I learned of his opinion that Camidge may not,
in fact, have composed The Duke of York's March, the whole
tale being a fabrication put about by his grandson Thomas Simpson
Camidge!

SAMUEL & PHILIP KNAPTON (YM p. 121)

Another useful TPC quotation from the council minutes helps
clarify the waites' story further and introduces a family
previously thought to have been separate from the common musicians
of York:

July 20, 1789. Now Thomas Hill of the said City, Musician,
is elected and admitted one of the Waites of the said City during
the pleasure of this House in the Room of Samuel Knapton, resigned,
and it is orderred that the said Thomas Hill be admitted to his
Freedom of this City on payment of the sum of fifteen pounds to the
Common Chamber of this City.

Cooper goes on to say that Samuel Knapton was the son of
Philip Knapton, barber and peruke-maker, and was born in 1756, and
baptised November 1st at Christ Church King's Square.
After following an apprenticeship with his father, he was admitted
a Freeman of the City in 1777; but, probably foreseeing a change in
headgear and fashion, he left off the making of periwigs for
minstrelsy. He was in his thirty third year when he relinquished
his position as City Wait. He appears to have been a popular
musician, and many notices occur of his engagements at the Assembly
Rooms and other entertainments. [no sources given]

Knapton resigned as a waite in the same year as he took over the
retail side of the music business founded by Thomas Haxby who
wished to concentrate upon the manufacture of fortepianos, violins,
etc. The Haxby shop in Blake Street is still easily identifiable by
the rain heads of the roof drainage down-pipes, high on the eaves,
all bearing the initials TH and dates from the 1770s. Knapton
opened his shop opposite the Assembly Rooms. That property, if
correctly identified, is now part green grocer, part electrical
business, and bears the rain head BB 1765 perhaps Burton &
Butler, who in 1784 are recorded as merchants in Blake Street, five
years before Knapton's opened. The Knapton story is too detailed
for this publication and has been written as part of a history of
Banks' Music Ltd. (see below). Suffice it to note that Samuel
Knapton became known as the Father of the Music Society of which he
was for a long time an active member. His music business was
transferred to premises at 34 Coney Street, near the junction with
New Street, in 1803. He took in his son Philip as partner in 1820
and sold out to William Hardman in 1829. He died in 1831, Philip in
1833. Philip Knapton was a well-loved church organist at St
Saviour's, a sensitive pianist and respected composer. He was
regularly associate conductor with Dr John Camidge jnr. in the
Great Yorkshire Music Festivals during the second quarter of the
19th century.

THE YORK HARDMAN FAMILY (YM p.121)

Daniel Hardman (1819-91) the last of the York
city waites proved, for a long time, impossible to put to rest and
at the time of creating the first version of this update he was
still alive as far as I could tell. The last report of him alive
was by Enderby Jackson (1896) in which he stated clearly that the
man was alive and in his nineties. Prior to that date The
Yorkshire Gazette reported Hardman's bankruptcy in 1847,
proving him extant at that much earlier date. (NB: I apologise for
muddling the reference numbers for these Newspaper reports. If the
reader finds it necessary to refer to them it is possible to
re-order them by cross matching dates in the text and the list of
references). Records in the York registrar's department and the St
Catherine's register (both national listings housed in York probate
office) were scrutinised from several years before 1896 up to 1914
and no trace of Dan Hardman's death could be found. It became
difficult to believe or not to believe Jackson's report. I did,
however, have his date of birth thanks to the Mormon records, 18th
September, 1806, so that I alone could celebrate his birthday
annually.

In 1991 new information on Dan's whereabouts began to emerge. I
am grateful to Dr David Griffiths at the University of York's
Morrell Library for acquainting me with a document relating to Dan
Hardman when brother William's estate was being sorted out
following his suicide. Dan was bankrupt in 1847 and, it appears
that by William’s death he had emigrated to Australia! Hence,
no record of his death in England.

Yet another fortunate encounter gave me the opportunity to
contact a helpful soul in Australia. When I was at York Reference
Library working on something completely un-waits, the librarian
asked if I’d be willing to talk to a lady researching the
genealogy of my surname for an Australian contact. I now have a
regular correspondent in Australia, Jean Murphy, neé
Merryweather, who very effectively traced Dan to Melbourne where he
set himself up as a professor of music and where he died on the
17th August, 1891 aged 86 years. Enderby Jackson seems to have been
lying....er....mistaken. However, Jackson
says that Hardman was still drawing his pension in 1896, so perhaps
the council was still supporting one of its ex-employees’
family, not knowing he had been dead for five years!

William Hardman (1792-1855) was a music shop
owner who also published a deal of sheet music. Some has been found
in the York city library, including Hardman's set of Favourite
Quadrilles, composed expressly for the ball given in the York
Assembly Rooms on the coronation of Her Most Gracious Majesty,
Queen Victoria (28th June 1838) arranged for
the pianoforte. It is not clear whether or not they were
composed by Hardman, but they were certainly played by his
Quadrille band at the ball (Knowles etc.). The cover is inscribed,
in his own hand: E.E. Strickland. From W.H. 1838.

John Hardman (1800-23+) was, we now know thanks to TP Cooper, a
city waite. A minute of the City Council, dated January 23rd 1822
reads: And now John Hardman is by this House appointed one of
the City Waites in the room of Henry Barnard deceased, with the
usual salary. He played violin.

N.B. this minute is remarkably similar to that of 1486 recording
the appointment of Robert Comgilton (YM page 59) yet its form is
now unfamiliar to the modern reader.

James Hardman (c. 1804-54) was the fourth
musical brother. He also played violin. James is among the violins
listed in the Yorkshire Festival orchestra programme of 1823 and
John is reported as a violinist by Knowles. It is intriguing to
consider this musical family: William, a music seller on viola;
Daniel (barber, innkeeper, oyster seller, music teacher, waite) on
'cello; John (hairdresser, confectioner and pastry cook, waite) on
violin and James, (druggist) on violin, playing as a string
quartet. I wonder?

1756 was an important year in music. There were two
significant births. Abroad, W.A.C. Mozart, an Austrian composer of
some note and in York, Samuel Knapton, city waite and respected
local musician. John Camidge senior returned to his home city,
allegedly having been taught music by Dr Maurice Greene and Handel
at the Chapel Royal. He immediately took over as organist at York
Minster, the first of three famous generations of Camidges in that
post. Also, on the 29th June that year the York Courant
printed the announcement which heralded the beginning of a new era
in the city’s music, the shop which was to become Banks
Music, still York’s main music supplier:

June 15, 1756

This day is opened, (at the Organ in
Blake-street, York)

A MUSIC SHOP, where Gentlemen, Ladies and others
may be furnished with all sorts of Musical Instruments and cases;
Bows, Bridges, Strings and Wire; Music, Vocal and Instrumental;
Books of Instruction, blank Books; rule Paper, &c. Wholesale
and Retail, at reasonable prices, by

Their most obedient and Humble
Servant,

THOMAS HAXBY

N.B. Instruments repaired, and kept in Order, in
Town or Country.

Thomas Haxby’s premises can still be easily
identified if one looks up at the eighteenth century rainheads
topping the fall pipes from the roof gutters in Blake street. The
appropriate ones are initialled T.H. and dated 1773. Haxby built up
an impressive retail business whilst developing a more important
musical instrument manufactory.

Eventually Haxby’s attention to manufacture and repair of
keyboard instruments became the priority and he sought a purchaser
for the retail side of the trade. Samuel Knapton, a hairdresser
born in that special year, 1756, bought and transferred part of the
business in 1788 to premises “opposite the Assembly
Rooms”, perhaps no.4 Blake Street. Samuel Knapton was a
‘cellist and was so highly respected in York music that he
became known as “The Father of the York Musical
Society” of which he was president for some time. When
Samuel’s son Philip (1788-1833) was of age he joined his
father at the shop. He was organist at St Sampson’s Church, a
composer whose works were published nationally. A number of his
songs achieved universal popularity e.g. Caller Herring, Clan
McGregor, and the ballad Ah, Country. His book of
Psalm & Hymn tunes went into several editions sold, not only in
York, but also in London by major music publishers including
Chappell’s and D’Almaine’s. JW Knowles, the
celebrated glass painter, pioneer photographer and York historian
reports (1924), characteristically without punctuation or crossed
t’s and virtually illegibly:

He composed several attractive
pieces of music, for example La Fete Civique dedicated to
Miss Clarke, the daughter of the Lord Mayor, A Scotch Air with
Variations, a march Megan based on a Welsh air,
besides overtures for Orchestra, concertos some of which were
performed at the York Musical Society Concerts and piano forte
pieces which were of excellent quality considering the state of
music at this period.

The Knaptons began a side of the music business in which the
firm of Banks later specialised, that of music publishing. Examples
of their sheet music can be seen in York city library and they also
turn up occasionally in antiquarian bookshops.

The next family to take on this singular York music trade was
Hardman. Like the Knaptons, they began their careers in
hairdressing and the manufacture of periwigs. They lived in Blake
Street where they ran tea-rooms and oyster-rooms as a sideline, but
they were also musicians. Four brothers, the sons of Edmund
Hardman, perukemaker, played strings: William (1792-1855) viola,
John (1800-1823+) violin, James (1804-1854) violin, and Daniel
(1806-1891) ‘cello and double bass, a family string quartet.
Both John and Daniel were city waits, musicians in the band which
played for the Lord Mayor and the city. When the waits were
abolished in 1836, Dan had already laid the foundations of the
modern brass band, here in York (1832-3) with the trumpeter James
Walker. It is probable that he played a brass instrument as well as
‘cello and double bass, but it is not recorded which.

William was the brother who took over the music retail business
from the Knaptons in 1829, just two years before Samuel died aged
74. Philip continued as a professional musician and music teacher
until his early demise, aged 44. His energetic life had
overtaxed his health and after a lingering illness he died June 20
1833 at his residence in Holgate (Knowles). Portraits of both
Knaptons, Samuel with his ‘cello, hang (or used to hang; they
may be in the gatehouse at the Museum Gardens) in the Camera
Cantorum at York Minster choir school. In 1803 Knapton’s
relocated to number 36 Coney Street where the music shop remained
for over fifty years, until the Banks era began in 1855. We have a
good idea what was for sale at the time of Hardman’s
take-over in 1829, for an inventory taken of the stock transferred
at the time exists today. The total stock was valued was
£1764:5s:8d and included a wide variety of keyboard, string
and wind instruments, some familiar today: oboes, flutes,
clarinets, bassoons (with fewer keys than now), pianos, violins,
violas, ‘cellos and harps. Others, out of use today, include
flageolets, keyed bugles, and barrel organs. Then there were the
printed music and ruled paper, reeds and strings, all very much
like the stock of Banks Music of today if we discount modern items
such as CDs. A small-scale reconstruction of Knaptons shop front
can been seen in York’s Castle Museum.

William Hardman was an accomplished musician and contributed to
music making in the city throughout his life. He played viola at
Selby Abbey, Westminster Abbey, and in the Great Yorkshire Festival
orchestra of 1823 alongside his brother John and Samuel Knapton. He
also directed a small orchestra in the Church of St Martin le
Grand, Coney Street, near his shop and contributed to race day
entertainments at the assembly rooms with his Quadrille Band
accompanying the dancing. In 1838 his own set of quadrilles was
performed by his band in the Egyptian room at the Assembly Rooms on
the occasion of the coronation of Queen Victoria (28th
June 1838). He published a piano reduction, a signed copy of which
resides in York library.

The transfer to Banks resulted from a tragedy for William
Hardman. Knowles relates:

His death occurred under the
most distressing circumstances. It was his custom to visit in an
evening to the Black Swan [in Coney Street, now demolished] and on
Nov 25 1855 he departed as in usual health intimating to his
housekeeper that he was going. In the morning he was found huddled
up and suspended of the neck to the banister at the foot of the
stairs - dead - He was buried the following day aged 63. The
evidence at the inquest elicited the information that Mr Hardman
had suffered from despondency for some months previous no doubt
caused by the sudden death of his wife of apoplexy the previous
April. Mr Banks the successor to the business was at the time of
the sad event an assistant in the Music shop but lived in Redeness
Street but was instantly sent for by William Boynton. He was
rendered first aid by [illegible] and Dr Clarke who found
life extinct on examination of the body. No stone records the death
of either William Hardman or his wife but they lie interred in a
grave next to the deceased family of Edmund Hardman the druggist of
Bridge Street.

Henry Banks was born on Christmas day 1812, probably the son of
a Coney Street bookseller and stationer, Christopher Banks who
traded next-door to the Mansion House, where Debenham’s used
to be until about five years ago. His wares were intriguingly
varied, an advertisement stating that he also sold: ….a
great variety of Ladie’s Pocket Books, Thread Cases, Silk
Purses, &c. and has also added Lustring Umbrellas, and Wax and
Spermaceti Candles. Orders received for London Newspapers.

Banks succeeded to the Hardman firm in 1855, having been there
as an employee since before 1841. He is reputed to have put all of
his energy into the music selling profession, building his shop
into the finest in the north of England. In his capacity as concert
organiser in the city it is said that he came into contact with all
the great performers of the day. As a performer he was, like his
predecessor Philip Knapton, a Church organist, indeed first at
Knapton’s Church, St. Saviours and afterwards at the
Wesleyan Chapel and two Roman Catholick Churches (Knowles). He
married a Miss Theresa Golightly (hence the unusual middle name of
his grandson Cecil Golightly Banks) and had two musical sons. The
elder, William, was tutored in music in York until the local
teachers could do no more. Then he was sent off to the Leipzig
conservatoire before returning to York to become a music teacher
and composer. Louis Henry (1849-1934) was a Minster chorister as a
boy, later learning piano and organ, playing the latter for St
Gregory’s RC Church). When his father died in 1881 he was
next in line to take over the shop, staying there until his death
in 1934.

The shop still exists, now at no.18 Lendal, within a hundred
yards of all its previous sites. Maybe the more recent history can
be added ere long, making particular mention of the late, legendary
Miss Banks.